Sean Hickey is an American

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

and record label executive, born in 1970 in

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

, Michigan, and based in Brooklyn, New York for decades. In 2022, he was appointed Managing Director of Pentatone.

Career

From age 12 he took lessons in

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

. At

Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public university, public research university in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 375 programs. It is Michigan's third-l ...

, Hickey's composition teachers included James Hartway and James Lentini. He has been commissioned by a number of musicians and organizations including the

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 ...

, the Saint Petersburg Symphony,

Michala Petri Michala Petri (born 7 July 1958) is a Danish recorder player. She is celebrated for her technical virtuosity and versatility across various musical styles. She made her solo debut in 1969, at age eleven. Biography Petri, who began playing th ...

Avi Avital Avi Avital (; born 19 October 1978) is an Israeli mandolinist. He is best known for his renditions of well-known Baroque and folk music, much of which was originally written for other instruments. He has been nominated for a Grammy Award (Best I ...

Lara Downes Lara Downes is an American classical pianist and cultural activist who has made the popularization of classical music by women and black Americans one of her causes. She was selected as the Classical Woman of the Year for 2022 by a poll of listener ...

, the

Fine Arts Quartet The Fine Arts Quartet is a chamber music ensemble founded in Chicago, United States in 1946 by Leonard Sorkin and George Sopkin. The Quartet has recorded over 200 works and has toured internationally for 78 years, making it one of the longest e ...

, and the Whatcom Symphony Orchestra. His first commercial recording, ''Left at the Fork in the Road'', was released in November 2005 on

Naxos Naxos (; , ) is a Greek island belonging to the Cyclades island group. It is the largest island in the group. It was an important centre during the Bronze Age Cycladic Culture and in the Ancient Greek Archaic Period. The island is famous as ...

American Classics. Featuring a selection of his chamber and orchestral works, the album broke the ''Billboard'' Top 100 Classical Chart and was praised as "substantive and savvy" by the magazine ''

Gramophone A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration waveforms are recorded as corresponding physic ...

''. In May 2013, an album of Hickey's clarinet and cello concertos was released on

Delos Delos (; ; ''Dêlos'', ''Dâlos''), is a small Greek island near Mykonos, close to the centre of the Cyclades archipelago. Though only in area, it is one of the most important mythological, historical, and archaeological sites in Greece. ...

. The album features cellist Dmitry Kouzov and clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein, along with the Saint Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Lande. The record was subsequently reviewed by ''

NewMusicBox ''NewMusicBox'' is an e-zine launched by the American Music Center on May 1, 1999. The magazine includes interviews and articles concerning American contemporary music, composers, improvisers, and musicians. A few interviews include renown ...

'', which called the clarinet concerto "a formidable work". Hickey's album ''Cursive'' was released in May 2014 on Delos, and is a retrospective of much of the composer's work for piano and chamber music combinations. Performing on the album are pianist Philip Edward Fisher, violinist

Julia Sakharova Julia Sakharova () is a professional violinist. A native of Zheleznovodsk, Russia, she debuted at the age of eight with the Moldavian Symphony Orchestra. Her mother is also a musician. By the age of 11, she was already internationally known as a ...

, flutist Brandon Patrick George, violist

Anne Lanzilotti Leilehua Lanzilotti née Anne Victoria Leilehua Lanzilotti (born November 5, 1983), is a Kanaka Maoli composer, multimedia artist, curator, and scholar of contemporary classical music. Early life and education Lanzilotti grew up in Honolulu, ...

, and harpist Meredith Clark. A further recording, by Greek guitarist Smaro Gregoriadou, was released on Delos in 2016, and features the second recording of his "Tango Grotesco", for solo guitar. Guitaris
Matthew Cochran
also recorded the extended solo work, ''Arroyo Seco''. 2017 saw the release of ''A Pacifying Weapon'', a concerto for

recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a newsp ...

and orchestra commissioned by recorder virtuoso Michala Petri, and premiered by the Royal Danish Conservatory Orchestra led by Jean Thorel. The premiere and recording took place in September 2016 in Copenhagen, released in 2017 on Our Recordings, and again in 2019, also on Our, as "American Recorder Concertos". He has seen three other recordings of his works in 2019. 2024 has seen the recording of his most ambitious work inspired by the Yuval Noah Harari book of the same name: ''Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind'', for piano, released in 2025 on

Sono Luminus Sono Luminus is a classical music record label founded by Sandy Lerner and Leonard Bosack, who also founded Cisco Systems. The label specializes in high-resolution recordings of acoustic music. History Sono Luminus was created in 1995 by Cisco ...

. Two of Hickey's compositions are featured on Carolyn Enger's release, ''Resonating Earth'', released in 2024 on Metier. The composer's work ''Fluid'', features on the award-winning album from Lara Downes. Hickey is also a published poet and writer of music reviews and travelogues. He is an

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadc ...

member and is published by Cantabile Press. In addition, he was the Senior Vice-president, Sales and Business development, for Naxos of America, and speaks regularly at colleges, conservatories and universities throughout the world on his compositional and creative work, as well new media and musician entrepreneurship. In April 2022 Pentatone appointed Hickey as managing director.

Works

Chamber

*Ampersand (2006) violin, piano *Avatar (2005) violin, clarinet, piano *Barri Gotic (2013) flute, guitar *Concerto for Clarinet and String Quartet (2006) B-flat clarint, 2 violins, viola, cello *Flute Sonata (1994) flute, piano *Fool's Errand (2004) B-flat clarinet, piano *Foolscap (2011) cello, piano *Funny Papers (2003) accordion, piano *Granfalloon (2004) bassoon, piano *Grecian Bend (2014) 2 vlns, vla, vcl *Horse's Mouth (2006) B-flat trumpet, horn, trombone *Le Visage de Vence (2011) flute, piano *Left at the Fork in the Road (2003) flute, B-flat clarinet, bassoon *Longitude (2013) viola, piano *Lunula (2016) flute, English horn *Mala Strana (2017) violin, horn in F *Mandolin Canons (2005) mandolin, guitar *Mock Tudor (2016) recorder, guitar *Pair of Pants (2003) flute, B-flat clarinet *Paradise Out of Focus (1992) flute, oboe, B-flat clarinet, horn, bassoon *Pied a Terre (2007) flute, viola, harp *Portage of Paz (1997) viola, guitar *Rumble Strip (2004) randomized ensemble *Runes and Alphabets (1998) flute, B-flat trumpet, harp, marimba, xylophone, percussion *Second String Quartet – Common Knowledge (2018) 2 violins, viola, cello *Second String Trio (1996) violin, viola, cello *Sonata for Viola and Piano – Jefferson Chalmers (2016) viola, piano *String Quartet (1996) 2 violins, viola, cello *String Trio (1994) violin, viola, cello *Terroir (2014) 2 violins, viola, cello and piano *Third String Quartet *Tiergarten (2019) B-flat clarinet, violin, piano *Unintended Consequences (2010) flute, violin, cello, piano *Viola Sonata "Jefferson Chalmers" (2017) viola, piano *Yurodivi (2012) B-flat clarinet, piano *

Choral

*A Mind of Winter (2003) SATB chorus *Agnus Dei (2007) flute, 2 ob, 2 bsns, 2 tpts, 2 trb, SATB chorus, cello, bass *Magnificat (1993) SATB chorus, organ *One Song, America, Before I Go (2017) SATB a cappella chorus *

Orchestral

*A Pacifying Weapon – Concerto for Recorder and Orchestra (2016) *Atahualpa (2015) *Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (2008) solo cello, orchestra *Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra (2006) clarinet, string orchestra (string quintet in chamber version) *Dalliance (2003) 2fl, 2 ob, 2 Bb cl, 2 bsn, 3 hn, 2 Bb tr, 2 trb, tuba, timp.,triangle, b.d, cymbals, tamb, harp, str. *Hitherto (2015) full orchestra *Mandolin Concerto (2010) solo mandolin, 10 winds, percussion, double bass *Sagesse (2003) fl, ob, 2 Bb cl, bsn, 2 hn, perc Str, ms, tenor *Sinfonietta (2010) flute, oboe, B-flat clarinet, bassoon, horn, 2 violins, viola, cello, bass *Single Malt (2015) vlns I, vlns II, vlas, vcls, db. *Symphony ("Olympus Mons") (2012) large orchestra *Symphony for Strings (1995) string orchestra *

Solo

*Archipelago (2002) piano *B-flat (2011) B-flat clarinet *Beara (2001) violoncello *Cursive (2011) piano *Dance Apotheosis (2017) violin *Dolmen (1999) piano *Fallows (2012) piano *Feeling Gravity's Pull (2010) oboe *Fluff (2004) flute *Hill Music: A Breton Ramble (2002) piano *I'm About to do to You (What's Been Done to Me) (2013) Piano *In Memoriam Kurt Vonnegut (2007) piano *Insufficient Means (2019) oboe *Ipso Facto (2019) piano *Let the Sea Make a Noise (2018) cello, or any solo instrument *Night Café (1993) piano *Ostinato Grosso (2002) piano *Portage II (2000) B-flat clarinet *Portage III – Sarabande for Piano (2000) piano *Portage IV (2000) clarinet in A *Reckoning (2011) piano *Saying Makes It So (2016) piano *Scree (2000) piano *Song (1992) piano *Suite After Milhaud (1994) piano *Tango Grotesco (2001) guitar *The Birds of Barclay Street (2001) piano *Two Epigrams (1995) bassoon *Under the Trees The River Laughing (1991) piano *What the Fisherwoman Saw (2004) piano *

Voice

*Nocturne (2001) mezzo-soprano, piano *To the Wars (2004) soprano, clarinet, cello

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hickey, Sean 1970 births Living people American composers American male composers 21st-century American composers 21st-century American male musicians Musicians from Detroit Wayne State University alumni